Defying convention

New Zealand leads the way with composite helicopter

Building the first all-composite fuselage helicopter in a market far removed from mainstream production and in an industry already besieged by fierce competition and the vagaries of economic influence may seem at odds with convention. But all the more so when the prototype machine made an emergency ditching into Auckland harbour, causing its designer and owner, Peter Maloney, to reflect.

The event didn’t cause him to rethink whether to proceed towards production, but to learn positively from had happened and understand how the helicopters design performed.